May 21, 1961 - Freedom Riders - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Marshall law imposed in Alabama after “freedom riders” attacks.When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a White man in 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transit was unconstitutional. When the same court stated that segregation within interstate travel was also illegal in 1960, the “freedom riders” took over. On May 4, 1961, 13 young activists boarded two buses from Washington, D.C., on their way to Virginia. They quickly encountered resistance and violence, but it was in Anniston, Alabama, where more than one hundred angry and violent white people met them. The bus was firebombed, forcing people out of the bus and since the Ku Klux Klan was given assurances that the local police would not interfere, the freedom riders were attacked. Organizers quickly called off the ride, but others wanted to continue. On May 17, 11 activists took a bus from Nashville to Birmingham, Alabama, but before they could get there, the local police arrested them. While federal Attorney General Robert Kennedy got the bus a police escort, when they reached Montgomery there was no police and the activists were severely beaten. Martin Luther King Jr., who was opposed to the ride because of violence, turned up at a rally in a local church and while speaking inside, a mob gathered outside. Kennedy sent troops to disperse the mob and riots broke out. On May 21, 1961, Alabama Governor John Patterson, who had not been sympathetic to the freedom riders, invoked marshal law on his state. Days later, the Kennedy government directed the Interstate Commerce Commission to put an end to segregation at all facilities under federal jurisdiction.

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